Our experience as a personal concierge service gives us plenty of opportunities to work with people who are undergoing a major life change. For example, we specialize in helping older people looking to downsize from the larger house of their family years to something smaller and easier to maintain. Often, clients are anxious about what lies ahead; they are anxious about the change.
Being fearful of change is not abnormal. To some extent, we all fear change because we do not necessarily know what lies ahead. But change does not need to be the enemy; change can actually be a great friend that opens the door to an exciting and different way of life. We believe it’s far better to embrace change with an open mind and heart than to be dragged kicking and screaming into it.
Strategies for Making Change Easier
An unnatural and excessive fear of change is an actual psychological condition known as metathesiophobia. We suspect most of the anxious clients we work with do not suffer from this phobia in a clinical sense, but experts who treat metathesiophobia offer some excellent ideas for overcoming fear that the average person can still use.
At the top of the list is doing your best to move gradually into change. If you know you have to sell your home and downsize, it is good to approach the process gradually. As soon as you put your home on the market, slowly start working toward packing your house even while you are looking for a new place to live. Take it slow and establish a comfortable pace. You will have more time to ease into your life change rather than being thrust into it in a day or two.
The second strategy recommended by the experts is to talk about, or write down, all of those things you are anxious about. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of verbalizing what you are thinking and feeling in order to calm your anxieties. We have spent many afternoons talking with our clients about their worries while we worked alongside them to pack.
Do Your Best to Prepare
We have found through our own experience that preparation is key to making the most of that day when the change you have been anticipating actually arrives. This is especially true in a downsizing situation. Preparation makes it easier to avoid some of the emergencies that can make a stressful situation even more so. The more you can prepare the smoother your day will be.
Part of the service we offer for downsizing includes advanced preparation. We will help you make plans to pack up your belongings, move them to your new home, and unpack and arrange everything. All you have to do is let us do the work for you and, if you so desire, keep us company while we work. In no time at all we can have you moved and reestablished without missing a beat.
Change does not have to be the enemy no matter what life change are going through. It can be an exciting time of newness and fresh starts; it can be a time for wiping the slate clean and starting over. Rather than see change as an enemy, try looking at it as a friend. Approach your changes gradually, with plenty of preparation, and by verbalizing your thoughts and feelings.